Change Lives

Friday, 29 April 2011

This old guy has won over so many hearts since he stumbled his way to SHAK. Dusty is gorgeous, and he is enjoying the love and attention he deserves. Here he is with his best pal Neve and my other dogs Oskar, Sky and Star escaping the royal wedding.

Here's a picture of Star having fun on a walk with the rest of my dogs today. Here she is with Sky, hard to believe when I found her she was in the vets for 8 days and it was touch andgo whether she'd pull through.

Thank you for all the get well wishes for Derek. He is recovering well, but this Sunday has come a little bit too soon and he's been instructed to put his feet up. Hopefully he will will be open again on the 15th.

Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Today marks the first anniversary of us losing one of our BIG old boys. Bentley died of old age and natural causes a year ago today, after having a brilliant end to his life with his Forever Fosterers Andy and Jackie. Andy was never seen without the big guy, and I'll never forget the tales of Andy having to go into a friends walk in bath just to give Bentley a wash.

Arriving from a pound, Bentley was very wobbly on his back end, and after a few days in kennels had pretty much given up on life. Step forward the Ellis family, and he turned back the clock.

You were very much a gentle giant fella, with a wonderful loving heart. You will always be in our thoughts.

Koda 1 yr on in his new home with his new brother Boki who is a Tibetan.

Paul and Koda run 7miles every morning then it's off to work (Paul's a tree surgeon) and Koda goes with him every day and sometimes helps to pull the logs. Koda has also met and impressed potential new adopters as an example of a rescue dog..

Monday, 25 April 2011

A wonderful weekend fundraising was capped off by an amazing total reached by the staff at Wynsor's Shoes at Benton. The £333 they have raised this weekend means that the total for Friday, Saturday and Sunday is just under £1100! Thank you to Della and all her staff, and to everyone who supported them and donated. That goes for everyone at Pets At Home in Cramlington too, and everyone who supported us there. A massive THANK YOU again to the SHAK Girls, and a special EXTRA BIG thank you to Joan who arranged the whole weekend.

Thanks once again to the girls for giving up part of their Easter weekend to put in amazing performances at Pets At Home in Cramlington and Wynsors Shoes in Benton. Joan, Carol, Sonia and Nicola all worked really hard and the weekend so far has raised us over £520. A truly magnificent figure, but I say so far as the staff and management at Wynsors were fundraising for us themselves, so there is more to come.

Thanks to the management and staff of both Wynsors and Pets At Home, your support is really appreciated and really does make a difference when it comes to us "Saving Dogs On Death Row."

Saturday also saw the drawing of the first ever SHAK Easter Draw. Special thanks to Joan who has ran the whole operation, and thanks to Lisa who paid for the first set of raffle tickets (which sold out), everyone who donated the fabulous prizes, and of course everyone who bought tickets. We sold an incredible 804 books (4020 tickets) so THANK YOU to everyone!

Friday, 22 April 2011

If you are unfortunate enough to be in a position where you have to sell or give your dog away please consider the owner enquiring about your pooch.

Some people around Guildford are taking on free or very cheap family dogs and using them in the brutal illegal sport, dog fighting. These dogs are caged and forced to fight other dogs that are trained to kill for money. As you can imagine it is a devastating end to a once loved part of the family. Dogs that will not fight are tied up and used as 'bait dogs' to be the punch bag for fighting dogs in training.

A lady who gave her Golden retriever away to a supposedly loving home, got a call only 2 weeks later from the RSPCA that had found her dead dog in a dog fighting establishment, tied up and its mussel duck taped after it had been mauled to death by other dogs. The microchip was still holding her previous owners address.

This is happening all the time, Dogs area also being stolen from homes and gardens and used to support this horrible sport. Please be aware and make sure you sell your beloved dog for a price only an animal lover would spend on it. After all...dog’s best friend should be priceless. Anybody enquiring about your dog in any situation should be quizzed and anybody suspicious should be reported to the police. Good luck.

The girls had a wonderful day at Pets At Home in Cramlington today (more of that later) but one highlight was the appearance of Bruce, an older SHAK boy. Looking absolutely stunning, Bruce was always gorgeous, but we found him a family that have put so much work in to turn him into the beautiful boy he is

Here he is reading all the latest SHAK news and sticking his tongue out to everyone who wrote him off.

Well done Bruce and the Stoddarts, and as always great to see how you are coming on.

Wednesday, 20 April 2011

Yesterday was another one of those sad days when it was time to say goodbye to one of the old SHAK "Forever Foster" boys. Keiser arrived with us with a huge reputation as nasty, but despite a more challenging character at times, deep down he was a sweetheart. Keiser found his foster home by lying down in the house where we used to rent kennels and simply refused to leave. That was Keiser, and for all his faults he really was a strong and brave boy. In the time we had him, he beat testicular cancer, a bowel problem and even had a toe removed. However, age and illness catches up with us all in the end, and Keiser seemed to deteriorate severely over the last 2 months or so.

He leaves behind a Mam and Dad who loved him, and a whole load of memories. Thanks for those big man, it was an absolute pleasure to have you as a SHAK dog. Run free now, no more pain. x

Thank you to Andrea for giving Brodie a sleepover so he could go and get his official SHAK haircut. As you can see Brodie is clearly enjoying the sunshine with his new sleek haircut, so thank you to Serena at Woof Cutz.

Friday, 15 April 2011

I don't know how they do it, but I'm convinced that the dogs that are the most desperate find there way to me and then onto SHAK. Old Dusty is no exception. I picked this handsome old guy up as a stray, and having served his 7 days unclaimed he is now the latest dog in line to break my heart and the hearts of all the SHAK team. Dusty is clearly in a bad way, as the photos in the first Dusty post show. His ears are severely infected, so much so that he is deaf, whilst he has gum disease and rotten teeth too. He is covered in lumps and bumps, and clearing showing signs of neglect.

Today I took him to the vets, and she confirmed what I already suspected, Dusty is suffering from testicular cancer. Despite this he is such a happy bouncy boy, and whilst treatment has begun on his ears and teeth, it was felt that at his age full surgery and removal of the testicles may just be too much.

The strength dogs such as Dusty (ans Spirit and Mama Bear before him) show is unbelievable, and I am just pleased that SHAK is there to provide exactly what we say we will "Safe Homes And Kindness." At the moment that home is my own home, where he is curled up on the floor next to me as I type this. God bless you boy.

Sunday, 10 April 2011

It has beeen a gorgeous weekend weather wise, and as is usually the case there has been a lot going on at SHAK.

Thanks to the management and staff at Jollyes for making Joan, Angie and Sonia so welcome both on Saturday and Sunday, when we had another fantastic fundraising weekend. We had some amazing donations both in the form of food and cash, so thank you to everyone who resisted the back garden and came to support the girls. I hear there was appearances from quite a few older SHAK dogs so thanks to them too. It's great to see them doing so well.

Today at the kennels, Andrew and I were lucky enough to have some fun in the sun with Gema and Bouncer. As you can see, all four of us enjoyed it especially the kisses.

Monday, 4 April 2011

This has been brought to my attention on Facebook. All I know is the information below. I am numb at the thought of what this girl went through. Who really are the monsters on this planet:

PHOTO FROM http://www.peta.org/ (The Dog - Abuse - 06) "Big Girl" was found on the ground weighing less than the chain around her neck. She had clearly been starved—she was a pile of bones and had raw, mostly hairless skin with absolutely no body fat. A veterinarian later told us that Big Girl's stomach contained nothing but dirt, leaves, a piece of corn cob with two kernels on it, and a piece of dry, caked fecal matter. Big Girl had been left to suffer for so long that she had begun to decompose. Four different generations of maggots were eating away at her body. When we gently peeled her off the ground, she moaned. She could not see us or hear us, but we hope she knew that we were there to help her. We sent Big Girl off to heaven with kind words and a gentle lethal injection. We wished we could have ended her misery much, much sooner. .

As is usually the case, as Harvey starts his new life with his new family, his place at SHAK is quickly taken by another dog in desperate need of time, space and love. Sparky is another stray I picked up, and he was so frightened that with any movement towards him he wet himself. Trying to get him into the car was in itself an adventure as he promptly hid under the Landrover and had no control on his bladder.

I got him in with the help of a whole jar of hot dogs, and he has no served his time to become a SHAK dog. Sparky is very young and very active, and has began to trust people again. We are currently trying to build up that trust before looking for a Forever Foster home.

IMPORTANT STATEMENT APRIL 2018

A Statement From SHAK.....

One of the drawbacks of gaining followers through Facebook, the press and other forms of media is the demand for our expertise is growing beyond a level that is manageable or even acceptable. We are a victim of our own success and with constantly running with around 70 dogs in our care, being such a small charity we are always stretched beyond our limit.

Therefore I think it is important for me to explain exactly where we get our dogs from and who we will deal with. For the past 12 years we have dealt very closely with vets taking destruction cases, local councils taking strays and a few recognised partnered charities that we have built up strong relationships with. Today this is still the case.

As I mentioned space and resources are very short resulting us being unable to take dogs from members of the public and due to time we are ubable to deal with the publuc in any way. Likewise we are not looking to extend our pool of partnered charities or organisations, so can not take dogs from groups we have never worked with before.

It is not out of ignorance, but due to concentrating our time on our own dogs that no unsolicited emails, phonecalls or Facebook messages will be returned.

Thank you for understanding and for all of your support.

Who We Are.....

Stephen Wylie and one of the SHAK dogs Donnie.

And What We Do.....

Celebrating its 10th anniversary on June 19th 2016, SHAK has come a long way since its founder Stephen Wylie uttered those fateful words ‘never again...’ after the shock death of his dog and best friend Shak.

The hundreds of dogs whose lives have been changed because of that loss is testament to a dog that had a lasting imprint on everyone he met.....

Today the registered charity has approximately 70 dogs inits care, offering sanctuary to the ones that really need it or a place to simply become a dog again for others.

Working only with destruction cases from vets, strays anddogs from our trusted charity partners, SHAK does not take in dogs from members of the public. Likewise we are not a rehoming centre, although we do offer the opportunity for people to apply for our Forever Foster project.

We concentrate all of our time, energy and resources directly into the well being of our dogs, enriching lives that others had written off.....

Keep Calm

Ways You Can Donate.....

We are delighted to announce our new partnership with Vodafone, and provide a simple and effective way of you to help us "Save Even More Dogs On Death Row."

Simply text SHAK01 £10 to 70070 to donate to Shak (Safe Homes And Kindness) and make a difference today. You can donate any amount upto £10 by simply changing the amount in the text, and the best thing is we get EVERY penny.

Thanks in advance for your support.

"It's A Dogs Life....."

A Blog page to show all the work that goes on behind the scenes at SHAK.

A brief insight into how our dogs get here, and what they do when they get here…..

(Please note, all opinions and views on here are exactly that, OUR opinions and views ony.)